Posted: July 18th, 2016

The assignment is to write a position paper, taking one side of the issue or the other, as if you were making a policy recommendation to a government official

The assignment is to write a position paper, taking one side of the issue or the other, as if you were making a policy recommendation to a government official. (Here you have your audience and sense of purpose already established.) In the first part of your paper, you will lay out precisely the principal issues at stake and explain why a decision on this matter is so important at this time. You should provide as much background information as you feel is necessary to provide sufficient context for understanding the situation. In the second part of your paper, you will compare and contrast the different arguments on each side of the issue, taking into consideration the full set of consequences and implications involved. You need only address those issues you consider most important or particularly significant for your decision-making process. In the third and final part, you will evaluate your evidence and come to a conclusion about your policy recommendations based on a set of well-defined criteria that you establish.